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Citing the presence of muscular competitors for a casino license in Orange County, one of the four Sullivan County gaming team’s advised officials on Thursday of their decision to drop out of the field.

Trading Cove New York LLC, which has been proposing a large facility in the Town of Thompson, said with Orange County projects bidding for a license near the New York City market, it would not be able to build the kind of facility Sullivan County deserves. Trading Cove, which had been working for years as partners of the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut, were proposing to work with the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans of Wisconsin at the Catskills project on 440 acres.

That leaves the field of bidders in Sullivan County at three and one more Catskills project, the Nevele in Ulster County. Five projects are proposed in Orange County, with big casino players such as Caesars, Cordish Companies and Genting in the mix.

Trading Cove and the Stockbridge-Munsee said in a joint statement that they concluded after “careful review, that the possibility, maybe even the likelihood, of a destination resort with gaming in Orange County so dilutes the market in Sullivan County that building and sustaining a first-class resort in Sullivan is not financially feasible for us . . . Sullivan County deserves a quality destination resort. Because we do not believe we can deliver that quality under the current market conditions . . .”

Catskills bidders and officials have been complaining that with Orange County able to get a license in the Hudson Valley/Catskills zone, financing for the Catskills projects may dry up given that if a license is awarded in Orange County, New York City gamblers will have less incentive to travel further upstate to play cards or slot machines.

Gaming sources say they expect other Catskills teams to drop out of the competition as well. At this point, teams should get a good portion, if not all, of their $1 million application fee returned. The money is supposed to be used to process applications, which aren’t expected to arrive until the due date of June 30.

Wouldn’t it be awful if New York built 4-5 casinos and no one opted to go, and gamble? What has been lost in all the hoop-de-doo about casino location is the fact New York expects to collect 40% of the take from casino revenues. Leaving 60% to be divide up among each casino’s costs of operation, operator profits and the neighboring municipalities and school districts. If the casinos are not overwhelming successes whom do you think is gonna get short changed?

Say they build one in Sullivan County at the former Nevelle site. You still have no trains, same roadways which were used in the Catskill’s heydays and no traffic studies or better transportation to these casinos. It’s a scam and let’s hope each community says no to having casinos in their communities.

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